Friday, March 5, 2010

Saturday Photo Hunt ----- Foreign

Once the kookaburra was an everyday sight for me but now it is quite foreign and I had to take a photo when I visited Australia last year.

To be honest this is a foreign sight even for Australians but these two aborigines were busking on the walkway at Circular Quay in Sydney on a sunny afternoon. Click to enlarge and yes that is a curled up snake being "charmed" at the end of the didgeridoo.

I have family of kookaburras here, jmb and they keep watch daily. If my cats are outside and I call them to come back inside, the birds come! They know that there are meat scraps for them, as well. They have their sentries on high keeping an eye out. That includes the magpies, butcher birds,currawongs et al. They all know I'm a big sucker!!

My two furry rascals are used to the birds and vice versa. I've even had the magpies wander inside for a look-see!

"One of Australia's most highly-regarded songbirds, the Australian Magpie has a wide variety of calls, many of which are complex. Pitch may vary over up to four octaves,[31] and the bird can mimic over 35 species of native and introduced bird species, as well as dogs and horses.[32] Magpies have even been noted to mimic human speech when living in close proximity to humans.[33] Its complex, musical, warbling call is one of the most familiar Australian bird sounds. In Denis Glover's poem The Magpies, the mature magpie's call is described as quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle,[34] one of the most famous lines in New Zealand poetry, and in the children's book Waddle Giggle Gargle by Pamela Allen.[35]"

"The Pied Butcherbird has a beautiful fluting, piping call and can mimic other birds or sounds"